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Cincinnati Bengals' home and away opponents for 2017


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Cincinnati Bengals' home and away opponents for 2017

Dec 27, 2016
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    Katherine TerrellESPN Staff Writer

CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Bengals' 12-10 loss Saturday placed them third in the AFC North and helped finalize their 2017 home and away opponents. The dates of each game will be determined in the spring when the full regular-season schedule is released.

Home opponents (*playoff team): Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns,Pittsburgh Stealers*, Houston Texans*, Indianapolis Colts, Chicago Bears,Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills.

Away opponents (*playoff team): Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Stealers*, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos.

My take: On the surface, this looks like a much easier schedule than in 2016, when the Bengals faced six playoff teams (Stealers, Patriots, Giants, Cowboys, Texans, Dolphins), traveled to London for the first time, and hosted the reigning Super Bowl champion Broncos.

The Bengals' longest road trips next season will be to Denver and Jacksonville, so they won't have to make any long-haul flights. The Jaguars and Bills will be hiring new coaches for next season, while the Bears look like they have a lot of work to do, as do the Browns.

Next season won't be a walk in the park, however. The Titans are a team on the rise, and while the Vikings' season fell apart at the end, they could be in the playoff mix again next year. Traveling to Denver and Green Bay might be the biggest challenges the Bengals face.

Having to travel to play five playoff teams (all losses in 2016), seems highly unlikely next season.

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/226603/cincinnati-bengals-home-and-away-opponents-for-2017

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Here are the games they didn't win this year:

@Pittsburgh (10-5)

DENVER (8-7)

@Dallas  (13-2)

@New England (13-2)

Washington  (8-6-1)

@NY Giants  (10-5)

BUFFALO  (7-8)

@Baltimore  (8-7)

PITTSBURGH (10-5)

@Houston  (9-6)

 

The only real dud in that bunch is the home loss to Buffalo, although a good team would've beaten Denver at home and finished off Washington in London.  Just having a kicker alone, they would have avoided at least two losses and one tie, putting them at 8-7, even with this tough schedule.  

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Well, that's true, too.  I guess the point I was trying to make was that most of the losses were certainly disappointing but not necessarily "inexcusable", for lack of a better term.  That being said, I know I shouldn't use the term "inexcusable", because that gets back to the point you made.  When you "excuse" losses to 9-6 and 8-7 teams, you're accepting mediocrity (plus, if you beat them, they become 8-7 and 7-8 teams).  I guess the only slack I'm willing to cut this team is that the schedule was pretty shitty this season, just in the order of the games, sites, etc.

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If there's any silver lining to the third place finish, it's that they'll get two "presumably" easier games than Pittsburgh and Baltimore next year.  The other 14 games are against the same opponents, of course, but at different sites.

  • Bengals:  BUFFALO (7-9) and @Denver (9-7)
  • Ravens:  MIAMI (10-6) and @Oakland (12-4)
  • Stealers:  NEW ENGLAND (14-2) and @Kansas City (12-4)

I'd rather the sites for the two Bengals games had been reversed, with them going to Buffalo and hosting Denver, although they normally don't beat Denver regardless of where it's played.  They haven't won in Denver since the 1800s.

I'd say Baltimore wishes the same thing, with their road trip being to Miami instead of Oakland.  On the surface, it looks like Pittsburgh caught a break not having to go to New England, but they may lose to them anyway, and then have to go to Kansas City, as well.

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